Using more tools increases your returns

From: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/1997/01/13/smallb2.html

Friday, January 10, 1997

Using more tools increases your returns
Sacramento Business Journal - by Bill "Guerrilla" Gallagher, Ph.D.

Jay Conrad Levinson -- the founder of Guerrilla Marketing, my mentor and co-author -- has come up with 100 Guerrilla Marketing "weapons." I have respectfully added to that list.

And I prefer not to use the word "weapon" in association with techniques to help people see the value of your products and services. I prefer to call them strategies, tactics and tools. Most firms use five or six marketing tools. Guerrillas use 50 to 60. More than half of them will not cost you anything!

They begin with the basics and continue to the more sophisticated.

Strategy No. 1 is by far the most critical. That's defining your business identity. Who are you? What do you do for your customers? How are you unique?

Most everything else supports your business identity.

Can you find 50 to 60 tools to put into your new marketing plan? Here's the list:

• Basic tools for the outset -- Business identity, business name, niche, quality, logo, color, motto or slogan, location, research studies, distribution, marketing plan and calendar, pricing, selection, customer mailing list.

• Tools often not recognized as part of marketing -- Packages, business cards, stationery, order forms, invoices, inserts, contests and sweepstakes, roadside stands, gift baskets, audiovisual aids, audiotapes and videotapes, marketing on phone hold, decor, attire, ad specialties and gifts, balloons, matchbooks, music.

• Tools that begin with attitudes -- Phone demeanor, neatness, smiles, speed, service, follow-up, contact time with the customer, how you say "hello" and "goodbye," publicity contacts, brand-name awareness, enthusiasm, competitiveness.

• Tools overlooked by non-Guerrillas -- Community involvement, take-one boxes, window displays, club and association memberships, team sponsorships, reprints of ads and publicity, sales training, circulars, refreshments, books and articles, courses and lectures, gift certificates, testimonials, tie-ins with others, writing a column in a publication, newsletters, classified ads, posters.

• Tools that can make you easy to buy from -- Hours of operation, days of operation, accepting credit cards, offering financing, catalogs, samples, toll-free phone numbers, credibility, satisfied customers.

• Tools that are frequently misused -- Outside signs, word-of-mouth, brochures, yellow pages ads, public relations, telemarketing scripts, access to co-op funds, access to marketing materials.

• Tools that can produce instant results -- Inside signs, trade show displays, fairs and flea markets, special events, searchlights and blimps, seminars and workshops, merchandise displays, demonstrations, consultations, sales presentations, direct-mail letters and postcards, postcard decks, booths for malls, door hangers, sales representatives.

• Tools that have extra firepower and lower costs the Guerrilla way -- Advertising, reputations, newspaper ads, magazine ads, radio commercials, outdoor billboards, cable TV commercials.

Bill Gallagher is head of Guerrilla Sales & Marketing in Diamond Springs and co-author of "Guerrilla Selling." For more information on the topics and ideas in this column, call (800) 800-8086 or send e-mail to bguerrilla@aol.com. If you have a marketing question, send it to The Business Journal, 1401 21st St., Sacramento 95814.